Breakers ["And then, rained down"]

And then rained down from ferocious clouds

our empty pupils heard the suspended breakers

beat while down below our legs, arms, torsos

moved about like small waves without life

waiting for the final roar of their waters.

Because they threw us into the sea and the fish

were the carnivorous tombs of the sea. Because

they threw us into the volcanoes and the craters

were the carnivorous tombs of the volcanoes.

Yes, because they killed us and we died and the

breakers of resurrection glided above us like

immense shattered ice floes about to smash

down on our own dead waves.

And then, like vast blocks of ice crashing down,

I heard the tumult and you heard it and the

foam made by the blocks of ice as they crashed

into the sea exploded upward and the breakers

of resurrection beat above us like a furious flock

of birds that descended upon us pecking us oh

yes death, oh yes tidewaters, oh yes Viviana.

And then, on fire, as if the whole Pacific were

burning, the breakers flashed and the glow of

the waves over the horizon dyed the sky with

the ancient red color of our flesh. When the

waves soaked us and the skies made us seasick

carrying us upward. When sobbing among the

flames of the waters we felt ourselves move once

again and it was all the seas, all the lakes and

rivers, all the deserts and mountains burning

into the sky as if the whole ocean were on fire as

it became with us alive again and these waves

were setting on fire our flesh with love.

Our sea burns. Burns without consuming itself.

Listen then to the tumult of the sea burning on

the horizon. The Pacific is burning and Viviana

sings with the cheeks of our love, with the new

cheekbones of our love, with the resurrection of

our love flying up into the sky like the flames of

a dream flickering before us.

Source: INRI, translated by William Rowe (Marick Press, 2003)